SMC set to seal Angat hydroelectric power deal with K-Water

CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. is set to seal its partnership with utilities firm Korea Water Resources Development Corp. (K-Water) to rehabilitate and operate the 218-megawatt (MW) component of the 47-year-old Angat hydroelectric power plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan.

Four years since the tender for the 246-MW power facility, arrangements for the privatization of the power facility are still being finalized, SMC president Ramon S. Ang told reporters.

“K-Water invited us to take 60-percent [share in the deal],” Ang said. “We are going to Korea next week to formalize everything.”

Asked whether First Gen Corp. can still become a partner, Ang said that possibility would be explored later, after the deal between SMC and K-Water has been concluded.

“When we’re in, then we can get a local partner, with the approval of course of K-Water,” Ang explained.

Last year, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) formally turned over the project to K-Water.

Having Filipino partners would enable K-Water to hurdle foreign ownership restrictions on the ownership of utilities in the Philippines.

The hydroelectric power plant is fueled by water from the Angat dam, which irrigates farmlands in Bulacan, and provides more than 90 percent of Metro Manila’s potable water supply.

In the April 2010 tender for the 218-MW component of the Angat power plant, K-Water bested the offers of some of the biggest power players in the country: First Gen Northern Energy Corp., San Miguel Corp., SN Aboitiz Power-Pangasinan Inc., Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., and DMCI Power Corp.

The government ran into trouble turning over the facility to the Korean state-owned firm after nongovernment organizations challenged the sale. The Supreme Court has since allowed the privatization, but told K-Water to take on a Filipino partner.

The remaining component of the Angat power facility remains under the control of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.